This reminds me of a problem I have with RTS games in general, especially any kind of fleet combat - a lack of formations. Ships are turned this way and that, and you also get that whole blobbing effec, which looks horriblet. It really makes combat unattractive for me. I wish you could create different formations with different bonuses and penalties to use. And it would be cool if formations broke down and became less effective the more ships you lost.
Anyway, not picking on AI War here, this is just a general issue I have with all of these games.